The backlash against Emilia Peréz star Karla Sofia Gascón’s offensive tweets continues — and she’s not exactly doing a good job of quieting it, either.
Of course, by now you probably know that journalist Sarah Hagi recently uncovered a lot of offensive tweets that Karla — who is currently nominated for a Best Actress Oscar — sent between 2020 and this year.
If she’s expecting support from her costars, it’s not happening (yet, at least). Yesterday, Zoe Saldaña distanced herself from Karla’s tweets in a Q&A, saying that the entire situation “makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group.”
Long story short, the whole thing is a mess — and it’s only getting messier, as Karla has put out another statement on Instagram (via Variety) with an image that features the sentence “As with ‘Emilia Pérez’: We can all do better. Me too” on top of a Nichiren Buddhist symbol.
In the new statement, Karla claims that “THEY ALREADY WON” before asking “for the most sincere forgiveness from those who feel bad about the way I’ve expressed myself at any stage of my life.”
She also mentioned practicing Nichiren Buddhism over the last decade as changing her “for the better” and added, “Although I have not committed any crimes I was not perfect either, I am not even perfect now. I just try to learn and be a better person every day.”
Then, she struck a more defensive tone (again). “They have already won, they have achieved their objective, to stain my existence with lies or things taken out of context,” she wrote.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a racist (you will be surprised when you find out that one of the most important people in my current life and that I love the most is Muslim) nor any of the things for which I have been judged and condemned without trial and without option to explain true intention; I have always fought for a more just society and for a world of freedom, peace and love. I will never support wars, religious extremism or the oppression of races and peoples.”
“They have created posts as if it were me insulting even my colleagues,” she added. “Things that I wrote to glorify as if they were criticisms, jokes as if they were reality, words that without the background only seem like hate. Everything as long as I don’t win anything and I sink.”
Karla ended her statement with a quote from her mother: I care very little whether you win anything, I just care about you being okay and that no one will harm you.” “Mother, this life has put me here to send a message of hope and love to this world, I will do it,” she added.
Will this new statement make things better? I’m betting it won’t…and I also think it’s safe to say that we’ll be talking more about this story in the days to come. We’ll see!